John Lennon – Help!, Let It Be,
Magical Mystery Tour,
How I Won the War

Paul McCartney – Help!, Let It Be,
Magical Mystery Tour

Ringo Starr – Caveman, Candy,
Help!, Let It Be, Magical Mystery Tour

George Harrison – Help!, Let It Be, Magical Mystery Tour

Victor Spinetti – Voyage of the Damned, Magical Mystery Tour, Help!

Why? The Beatles

Seen: About 20
times (seriously). Now: 24 February 2017

‘Turn left at Greenland.’ ‘Stop being
taller than me.’ ‘She looks more like him than I do.’ ‘They’re dead grotty.’ ‘A
bloomin’ book.’ All classic quotes, some of which I use regularly myself to
this day.

The story is minimal. The lads are on
their way to London – on a train! The Beatles on a train! – for a live TV
program, accompanied by Paul’s trouble-making granddad (‘Me other one.’) They
go to a nightclub but are rounded up by their minders Norm and Shake and
brought back to the hotel to answer their fan mail. Everywhere they go they’re
chased by screaming fans. Ringo feels bullied by the others and Granddad
manipulates his inferiority complex so that he wanders off. But he comes back
and the TV program is aired. All is well.

It’s just a film about the Beatles being
clever, witty, irreverent, doing everything they can to escape the pressure and
demands. And playing their music. ‘Don’t Bother Me.’ ‘All My Loving.’ ‘If I
Fell.’

Slapstick, absurd, charming. I’m sure all
these words found their way into the reviews back then. It was considered fresh
and innovative.

So innocent. So simple. So long ago. If only
they had known what they had ahead of them.